Myrna Kostash - Writer of literary and Creative Nonfiction

Never throw anything away! When Myrna opened a manila folder holding an unpublished piece from a travel diary in Prague 1988. She had added on to and rewritten it several times again over the decades until 2019, when she had another go at it, submitted it to Brick magazine, and was thrilled when it went into print.
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Myrna knew Chrystia Freeland and her parents while they were all in Alberta. She also interviewed Edmontonians with unique angles on the future parliamentarian, including her years in a Ukrainian feminist housing co-op in Old Strathcona.
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About Myrna

Myrna Kostash is an acclaimed writer of literary and creative nonfiction who makes her home in Edmonton when she is not travelling in pursuit of her varied literary interests and passions. These have taken her from school halls in Vancouver, BC, to Ukrainian weddings in Two Hills, Alberta; from the site of the mass grave of Cree warriors in Battleford, Saskatchewan, to a fishers’ meeting in Digby, Nova Scotia; from the British Library in London, UK, to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. She is inspired in her work by her childhood in the Ukrainian-Canadian community of Edmonton, her rites of passage through the Sixties in the US, Canada and Europe, by her discovery of the New Journalism and feminism in the 1970s, by her rediscovery of her western Canadian roots in the 1980s, and most recently, by her return to her spiritual sources in Byzantium and the Eastern Christian (Orthodox) Church.

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An Evening with Myrna Kostash

In October 2018, at “An Evening with Myrna Kostash,” Myrna presented a talk to the Melbourne members of the Association of Ukrainians of Victoria (Aus), “Ancestors and Elders: Ukrainian-Canadian Settlers, the First Nations and the Myth of ‘Free Land.'”
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Interview with Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke

Myrna’s interview with Greek writer, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, appears in issue #101 of Brick magazine (Myrna’s favourite hot spot for literary nonfiction). Buy a copy!

Myrna’s most recent book, The Seven Oaks Reader, continues to get notice:

Good Reads review >
All Lit Up overview >
Scottish Review of Books >

Kobzar Literary Award

Myrna is thrilled to be one of seven women writers who have won the Kobzar Biennial Literary Award for "outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts by authors who develop a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit" for the anthology Unbound: Ukrainian-Canadians Writing Home, edited by Lindy Ledohowski and Lisa Grekul and published by University of Toronto Press with cover art by Toronto artist Natalka Husar. The prize, worth $25,000 and sponsored by the Shevchenko Foundation, was announced at a sold-out gala in Toronto March 1, 2018.

Featured in Prairie Fire

Myrna was delighted to be in the same recent issue of the terrific Winnipeg-based literary magazine, Prairie Fire, as poets Alice Major, Bert Almon, Lorne Daniel and Stephen Berg, among other bright lights. Myrna's contribution was a creative nonfiction, "Two Hills Diary" based on the journal she kept when living in Two Hills the summer of 1975, to research All of Baba's Children.

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Being edited for publication by Laurie Graham (herself a poet and the publisher of Brick) was almost as creative a process as was writing the original piece. Here's our conversation, all about the first couple of sentences that we wrangled over.

Myrna is one of the writers featured in Brick magazine's recent series, The Craft of Editing.

November 19, 2019, as part of the University of Alberta's Alumni Association series, The Educated Critic, Myrna spoke to a sold-out audience in the Wedgewood Room of the Fairmont Macdonald Hotel in Edmonton.She spoke about and read from her classic 2009 book, Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River.

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Zemlya/Nanaskomun, We Give Thanks for the Land was a Ukrainian-Canadian and Aboriginal Ceremonial Exchange of Gifts presented to both communities in September 2012 by Myrna Kostash and Sharon Pasula, Metis activist. The program booklet for Shumka Dancers' recent new production, Ancestors and Elders, April 2018 and March 2019 states: "We acknowledge the foresight of Myrna Kostash and Sharon Pasula whose project entitled Zemlya/Nanaskomun first brought these stories to our attention."

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Being Ukrainian Orthodox in a Time of War: Part One
I began writing this post near the end of February 2022, on tenterhooks along with much of the world about the likelihood of a war being unleashed by Russian military forces on the sovereign territory of Ukraine. As I post it, this is Day 125 of Russia’s war on Ukraine and its people. July 12 Read more >
Who was Mary Magdalene Really? Part Two
A recap: Scene in a cafe. I am waiting for the barista to make my daily flat white when her friend arrives to say “hi.” Barista and I have been chatting about Mary Magdalene and “fake news.” Barista to friend: “You went to Catholic school. Who is Mary Magdalene?” Read more >

Acclaimed Writer of Literary and Creative Nonfiction

Recently Published

Let's Keep Doing This: Writings in Honour of Stan Persky

Award Winning

Prodigal Daughter

Recent Articles

About Myrna

News & Events

Reading the River

Speakers' Series of the St John's Cathedral branch

An Evening with Myrna Kostash

Interview with Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke

Myrna’s most recent book, The Seven Oaks Reader, continues to get notice:

Kobzar Literary Award

Featured in Prairie Fire

Media

Photos

From the Blog